#the sequel to worldwide miku

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Before we get to the box... Here's another update from the toy box.

Combat Carl returns in TOY STORY 5, he'll be voiced by Ernie Hudson. Carl Weathers previously voiced him, but he passed away a year ago. Pixar usually nails it in casting, and that's a good get for the character(s). Will it be the same mini ones seen in TOY STORY 4? The one we met at the motel in TOY STORY OF TERROR!? Maybe all of them? A new one? Either way, you gotta have Combat Carl. He was a big part of Jessie's little arc in OF TERROR! - my favorite TOY STORY anything to have come out of this franchise since the release of the third film, and Jessie is said to be the focus of TOY STORY 5... So, makes sense!

The closer we get to the movie existing, the more trickles out.

Box office...

Third place is THE KING OF KINGS, which tracks, because it was Easter weekend. I expect a hefty drop afterwards, but the film slipped 9% and has made $45m to date here and $49m everywhere. Cost $15m to make, so I imagine a lot more Biblical animated movies will come from Angel. Complete w/ QR code PSAs trying once more to astroturf their sales!

7th place goes to GKIDS' release of COLORFUL STAGE! THE MOVIE: A MIKU WHO CAN'T SING. $2.8m from 800 locations, $10m everywhere.

New opener SNEAKS - seemingly TOY STORY but with footwear... Shoe Story... From distributor Briarcliff Entertainment, fell outside of the Top 10. Playing in around 1,500 cinemas, SNEAKS only took in $530k... Woof... My cinema didn't get the movie, and I've heard from some that it's unfortunately a misfire. It had some great people involved (Rob Edwards and Chris Jenkins directed, they have solid resumes), in fact it was almost helmed by Pixar vet and frequent Brad Bird collaborator Teddy Newton. I still await a feature film directed by him, for he was supposed to do this pretty edgy picture for Pixar that entered development around 2012, but never got formally announced by Disney or Pixar, nor went anywhere. Then he was at Paramount Animation for a bit, Warner too, hopped around some, but has never done a feature. Only his pretty solid 2D/CG hybrid Pixar short DAY & NIGHT that ran before TOY STORY 3... And also BOYS NIGHT OUT, a 2003 short that was apparently a re-cooked deleted scene from THE IRON GIANT.

Anyways, SNEAKS looks to come and go, and will rotate on a streamer somewhere.

The PRINCESS MONONOKE re-release dropped 69%, has made $17m to date, plays in 40 theaters.

THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP plays in 42 theaters, having lost 43 this week. 67% drop, $8.8m domestic / $11m worldwide.

FLOW, still floating somewhere. $26m+ worldwide. Looks like MOANA 2 and MUFASA finally packed their bags and left.

Again, it's relative quiet time until ELIO gets here, and honestly, that may be a quiet opener too. I certainly hope it's a big hit, we need to see a Pixar original/non-sequel actually make back its ridiculous budget in a post-COVID breakout era. Even a $350m-ish gross, great for a sub-$100m DreamWorks movie like THE WILD ROBOT, would be considered a failure for ELIO. $496m was called just that for ELEMENTAL. Ludicrous curve these things are graded on. The Walt Disney Company really needs to adjust to the field here.

A good solution for Disney and Pixar is to simply not blow $200m+ on these things. A sequel, maybe, but something less familiar? Nah. A lower budget doesn't HAVE to be a bad thing. In fact, one could take more risks with less, so long as it's not a crunchy production made under screwy regulations or lack thereof. (Like what happens, in say, Vancouver's animation sphere.) Think Disney Animation Florida making LILO & STITCH for $80m in comparison to the main unit in Burbank sinking $140m into TREASURE PLANET. L&S did well in theaters, exploded on home video, and is beloved to this day, TREASURE PLANET bombed hard but it did get a deserved following afterwards. I love both movies, myself.

Like, why can't Pixar - and WDAS for that matter - just have solid units outside of California making smaller, lower budget, quirkier movies that don't need to climb Mount Everest in order to turn a profit? I know why, but it's a nice thought to have.

Because this just isn't sustainable. ELIO looks to be the first Pixar original movie that is scrubbed of anything "autobiographical"... Supposedly the thing that caused SOUL, LUCA, TURNING RED, and ELEMENTAL to "flop"... Never mind that three of those movies never saw a proper theatrical release, couldn't because of a literal deadly virus... As in one that opens wide, and lasts for months...

I heard through the trenches that the original version of ELIO that was being directed by Adrian Molina mirrored what it was like for him growing up gay - a kid who feels alone on Earth and finds community with aliens... Like yeah, and that was the "autobiographical" thing that had to be pulled from the film to make it more "universal". Now, what happens if that movie fails? What are Disney bean counters going to blame it on then?

They'll come up with something. No "space movies", no "alien movies". Remember how MARS NEEDS MOMS flopping - way back in 2011 - convinced Disney heads that people won't see movies about Mars, and that lead to JOHN CARTER OF MARS losing the OF MARS? To now just being a guy's name? And then some 4 years later, Fox released THE MARTIAN - before being bought by Disney - and it did really really well? Dingus corporate stooges spending too much money on movies that they try way too hard to sand off for an audience that would probably hate it for other reasons because that's just where we are right now lol. And if those tariffs really go into affect, Disney's not gonna have the Chinese box office that they so need for a $200m+ endeavor to break even... So, yeah, as you could tell, I think Disney is stuck in a weird self-destructing cycle that someone with guts has got to break them out of. Make me the CEO, then!